Aime
Marco Aime
Marco Aime, is professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Genoa. He has conducted research on the Alps and in West Africa. He regularly contributes to ‘La Stampa’ and ‘Liberazione’ newsdailies, and has been a consultant to ‘Pistoia-Dialogues on Man’ since its first edition. He also sits on the jury of the Chatwin Prize. In addition to his many scientific papers, Aime has authored a number of books: Le radici nella sabbia (EDT, 1999); Diario Dogon (Bollati Boringhieri, 2000); La casa di nessuno. I mercati in Africa occidentale (Bollati Boringhieri, 2002); L’incontro mancato (Bollati Boringhieri, 2005); Gli specchi di Gulliver (Bollati Boringhieri, 2006); Timbuctu (Bollati Boringhieri, 2008); Il diverso come icona del male (with E. Severino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2009); Gli uccelli della solitudine (Bollati Boringhieri 2010); La macchia della razza (Ponte alle Grazie, 2009); Eccessi di culture (Einaudi, 2004); Il primo libro di antropologia (Einaudi, 2008); Una bella differenza (Einaudi 2009); Il dono al tempo di Internet (with A. Cossetta, Einaudi, 2010); Verdi tribù del Nord. La Lega vista da un antropologo (Laterza, 2012).
What is to be an anthropologist today? Not only going to rummaging in those corners of the world that Claude Lévi-Strauss dubbed ‘the dustbins of history,’ but also asking questions on cultural flows and movements crisscrossing the whole planet and our society. Though still using its traditional toolbox, anthropology today take a fresh approach to current issues in which the distinction between ‘us’ and ‘the others’ is increasingly blurred. Issues such as identity or tradition are considered through the prism of history in an attempt at coming up with new and more dynamic keys to the understanding of contemporary societies.
Marco Aime, is professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Genoa. He has conducted research on the Alps and in West Africa. He regularly contributes to ‘La Stampa’ and ‘Liberazione’ newsdailies, and has been a consultant to ‘Pistoia-Dialogues on Man’ since its first edition. He also sits on the jury of the Chatwin Prize. In addition to his many scientific papers, Aime has authored a number of books: Le radici nella sabbia (EDT, 1999); Diario Dogon (Bollati Boringhieri, 2000); La casa di nessuno. I mercati in Africa occidentale (Bollati Boringhieri, 2002); L’incontro mancato (Bollati Boringhieri, 2005); Gli specchi di Gulliver (Bollati Boringhieri, 2006); Timbuctu (Bollati Boringhieri, 2008); Il diverso come icona del male (with E. Severino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2009); Gli uccelli della solitudine (Bollati Boringhieri 2010); La macchia della razza (Ponte alle Grazie, 2009); Eccessi di culture (Einaudi, 2004); Il primo libro di antropologia (Einaudi, 2008); Una bella differenza (Einaudi 2009); Il dono al tempo di Internet (with A. Cossetta, Einaudi, 2010); Verdi tribù del Nord. La Lega vista da un antropologo (Laterza, 2012).
No human society has ever left the body just the way that it was in nature. We all manipulate our bodies in some way—by drawing on them, coloring them, carving them, covering up parts of them—almost as though we were never satisfied with them. We do all sorts of things in order to distance our bodies from their natural state, to make them ever more ‘human,’ i.e. cultural. And in so doing, every society expresses its aesthetic norms and its aspirations. From haircuts to tattoos, from scratching to plastic surgery, from body paintings to cosmetics, human imagination and creativity offer us many opportunities to manipulate the body. Such practices have become a field of investigation by cultural anthropology as they represent a form of writing that humans try to imprint—in more or less high color, with more or less deep signs—in that blank page, their body.
Marco Aime, is professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Genoa. He has conducted research on the Alps and in West Africa. He regularly contributes to ‘La Stampa’ and ‘Liberazione’ newsdailies, and has been a consultant to ‘Pistoia-Dialogues on Man’ since its first edition. He also sits on the jury of the Chatwin Prize. In addition to his many scientific papers, Aime has authored a number of books: Le radici nella sabbia (EDT, 1999); Diario Dogon (Bollati Boringhieri, 2000); La casa di nessuno. I mercati in Africa occidentale (Bollati Boringhieri, 2002); L’incontro mancato (Bollati Boringhieri, 2005); Gli specchi di Gulliver (Bollati Boringhieri, 2006); Timbuctu (Bollati Boringhieri, 2008); Il diverso come icona del male (with E. Severino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2009); Gli uccelli della solitudine (Bollati Boringhieri 2010); La macchia della razza (Ponte alle Grazie, 2009); Eccessi di culture (Einaudi, 2004); Il primo libro di antropologia (Einaudi, 2008); Una bella differenza (Einaudi 2009); Il dono al tempo di Internet (with A. Cossetta, Einaudi, 2010); Verdi tribù del Nord. La Lega vista da un antropologo (Laterza, 2012).
From Marcel Mauss’ 1921 essay on The Gift to such online practices as free software, the gift is a constant pervading our lives even if we are not aware. Giving—this common, simple gesture—represents the true driving force behind every community, every society. What distinguishes giving from other forms of exchange? Freedom—the freedom of returning, the freedom of giving whenever and however one wishes. Much of human relations is based upon the acts of giving, receiving and reciprocating, the three pillars of a system resting upon a constant alternation of equilibrium and disequilibrium. They give rise to a time of waiting in which and by which relations between individuals stay alive.
Marco Aime, is professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Genoa. He has conducted research on the Alps and in West Africa. He regularly contributes to ‘La Stampa’ and ‘Liberazione’ newsdailies, and has been a consultant to ‘Pistoia-Dialogues on Man’ since its first edition. He also sits on the jury of the Chatwin Prize. In addition to his many scientific papers, Aime has authored a number of books: Le radici nella sabbia (EDT, 1999); Diario Dogon (Bollati Boringhieri, 2000); La casa di nessuno. I mercati in Africa occidentale (Bollati Boringhieri, 2002); L’incontro mancato (Bollati Boringhieri, 2005); Gli specchi di Gulliver (Bollati Boringhieri, 2006); Timbuctu (Bollati Boringhieri, 2008); Il diverso come icona del male (with E. Severino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2009); Gli uccelli della solitudine (Bollati Boringhieri 2010); La macchia della razza (Ponte alle Grazie, 2009); Eccessi di culture (Einaudi, 2004); Il primo libro di antropologia (Einaudi, 2008); Una bella differenza (Einaudi 2009); Il dono al tempo di Internet (with A. Cossetta, Einaudi, 2010); Verdi tribù del Nord. La Lega vista da un antropologo (Laterza, 2012).